A woman in her 50s who threatened her young daughter with a knife and repeatedly assaulted her for years has been sentenced to prison.
Cheongju District Court Judge Choi Ji-heon recently sentenced the woman, identified only as A, to two years in prison on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act, according to Yonhap.
A is accused of striking her daughter, B, then a primary school student, twice on the head with a showerhead at their Cheongju home in the summer of 2020 after the girl came home late from school. She then retrieved a knife from the kitchen and threatened, "Should I kill you and go to prison?"
In early 2023, A scolded B for letting another person go ahead of her while waiting to use a printer at a community center, saying "time is money," then cut the girl's hair with scissors. She then forced B to kneel with both arms raised for about two hours, and when the child lowered her arms, A struck her multiple times.
The abuse stretched from 2015 to 2024. A also stabbed B's calves with a pencil over poor grades and, on another occasion, chased her daughter on a bicycle and rammed into her five times after the girl failed to find a meeting spot.
"The defendant has a prior record of being referred to child protection proceedings for child abuse," Judge Choi said, adding that the victim "has not yet recovered from the psychological trauma." The judge also said that while B had expressed a wish not to see her mother punished, A had threatened to cut off financial support — influencing the girl's position — and that this factor was given only limited weight in sentencing.
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